Examples

He flicked over the last page of the report and tossed it into his out-tray, stubbed out the cigarette and folded his hands across his middle, preparing to listen, as he usually did, with his attention fully engaged.

An hour earlier the last file, containing his final minutes, had been collected by the uniformed messenger as quietly and unceremoniously as if this final emptying of his out-tray had been no different from any other.

"If you are sitting in the Department of Finance - and I know this because I was there myself - if you sit there and do your grind and move files from the in-tray to the out-tray, you don't really learn a lot and you don't bring very much to the party."

She continued to watch him through the matted tangle of hair that had fallen about her face, as he picked up the sheaf of anatomical prints from the machine's out-tray, folded them and deposited the whole batch in his case.